My favorite subtle change is how in ToTK, if your inventory is full and you open a chest, it automatically opens the menu so you can swap something out. I find that quite helpful --- saves me the time and energy of having to go into my menu manually, throw something away, and then reopen the chest.
The log balancing animation was likely removed due to the Ultrahand crafting often using logs and lumber, having Link enter the balancing animation for a wide raft made out of logs would just be weird so removing it makes sense.
There's also the fact that due to trees being frequent makeshift bridges in BOTW (like on the Great Plateau), maybe he's had enough practice to not need his arms to balance.
I also noticed that when you jump into a body of water from a great height, it actually creates water droplets that rain down that can be more or less depending on how high you jumped from. I don’t think that was in botw.
It seems no one notices the improved sound engine in this game. Sounds are more prevalent with various actions such as rolling a boulder down a hill. Sounds also muffle with distance, especially with things like horse galloping, lightning, and explosions.
I haven't noticed that, probably because i have been playing on docked mode (i had never done that before!) but i do find the sounds to be slightly unfamiliar, has the ambient changed too?
I think they might've removed the log balancing animation due to Ultrahand creations. Would be weird if he kept balancing himself on a log raft for example.
Implimenting a balancing animation that triggers only on isolated logs probably wouldn't have been hard to do, but it wouldn't have made much sense in a game where the player is expected to push Link's balance skills far beyond log traversal. TotK pretty much encourages the player to put Link on awkward geometry. And making Link do a balancing animation whenever he touches any narrow footing would not have been very elegant looking. So I could see why they did not try to make Link do any supplementary "state" animations. Frankly, the fact they manage to keep Link's feet from clipping on frantically flippy wooden plank contraptions is kinda amazing in of itself.
@@Graphomite Makes sense. And yeah, I'm also very impressed at how consistent the physics and hitboxes are with how maleable the objects are. It gets wonky at times, but rarely I've seen it break.
Love all these little changes! The only thing that bothers me in ToTK is how some NPCs who are supposed to recognize us do not. It’s the same thing for how the Divine Beasts, the Sheikah Towers, the Sheikah Slate and the sanctuaries just disappeared without anyone making any comment about it, there’s not even some easter eggs about them or even marks :/
the only thing even slightly mentioning the divine beasts that i saw had to do w a quest given by symin in the school in hateno. even then no one rlly says anything ab them directly it just shows a slab w the history of it on it 🥲
If you know where they were, some structures left a mark, although not a very big one. The pilars around the castle for example. I assume there might be an explanation later on, but yeah this is weird. Anyone knows how much time passed between the 2 games ?
@@williamcharestrail weird. I guess they disappear after the end of Botw. After several years and with the ongoing events, people would not talk about them much. If I remember correctly, there is still a few broken guardians. So they did not just disappear, I guess Hylians just cleaned the whole place up.
While it might've been done without such meaning put into it, I like to think that the addition of fall animation, the removal of balancing-on-log animation and other small changes are indicating of how Link's relationship with height is changed. As if now he doesn't fear height after using paraglider for so long, and is now even more skilled when it comes to dealing with it.
I love this! It is a great point! My theory at least with the balancing on Tree’s change, is that it’s been a while since he lost his memory and skills. He now has most of them back and with such skills I guess doesn’t need to balance as much? Idk just thoughts
Great info! Here's a little extra to go with some of them: Not only can Whistle Sprinting no longer be used, it punishes you for trying it by draining your stamina faster. When pressing X to remove an item Link is holding, it actually removes whatever item is currently highlighted. So if you select a mushroom and then three meat, you can remove just the mushroom by highlighting it first. If you highlight an item he isn't holding, he won't remove anything. Not only do you get a message next to the gauge in unbearable temperatures, the gauge itself flashes red now. Turning completely red while standing in a fire was present in BOTW, though. I like to think he doesn't use his arms to balance anymore because he's walked on enough logs and tree trunks to not need to anymore.
Totally agree on that last bit; Link's done it so much at this point that he's figured out how to get up on the log and not raise his arms without losing his balance.
For clarity, stamina being drained rapidly isn't directly due to Whistle Sprinting's fixing, that's just what happens when you try to repeatedly tap the sprint button and was a thing in Breath of the Wild too
@@WhimsicottFanatic Yes, the initial press uses a chunk of stamina and then drains at a set rate after that, so hammering the button just caused that initial cost to rack up repeatedly.
Something I noticed is that when you run out of stamina and it's recharging, if you go in water you can swim with however much red recharged instead of instantly drowning until it fully recharged. At least, this was the case with gliding.
I seen that. Such a subtle yet huge change. God, this is the game they wanted to make when they envisioned BotW. They just needed the first game to create the framework.
I saw that you can actually climb a bit, fall in the water, swim a bit, and repeat it several times, if the body of water you are in allow it. Swim, climb, fall, swim, climb, fall... Slow but working. Probably not game breaking but maybe it could be used somewhere.
the change from greenish yellow to pure yellow lightning and electric effects was 100% a good one, and lightning is SO much more dramatic and dynamic. riding through a thunderstorm on your horse now makes it feel like death is after you, but in a cool way?
They implimented a lot of complex new lighting effects into TotK. Particularly shadow and moving-light effects, since TotK impliments the use of darkness way more.
As someone who prefers to play without the minimap, I wish there were more detailed options for the HUD. I’d like to keep some of the elements, like hearts or tooltips, without needing to have everything else there too
@@mkv2718 Yeah! Pro Hud is great for immersion, but easy to get lost if you are constantly distracted. Especially in The Depths. Can't count how many times I checked my map to see where I was and where I'm heading.
I asked a similar question when Breath of the Wild released, "Why'd they get rid of the epic dungeons, invigorating music, captivating story, and intriguing characters?" All in good fun though, I enjoy parts of Breath of the Wild and am mostly enjoying Tears of the Kingdom 😀
@@skeleman6088 Just so we're on same page, using the dictionary meaning - captivating: capable of attracting and holding interest In Breath of the Wild, everything important already happened and you're told the whole story on the Great Plateau. Instead of having interesting gameplay moments, you are just told the story through a cutscene. This immediately deflates interest. You don't experience the story, you're told the story and given all the powers straight away. There's no tension or motivation to mess with the story at all and the storytelling itself is bland. There's no imminent danger and most of Hyrule is prosperous. In Breath of the Wild most players just run around exploring and goofing off. Ganon just floats around until the player feels like fighting him. In previous Zelda games, the story slowly unravels and it gets more interesting over time, with the stakes growing exponentially. All of Link's outfits, weapons, and tools have important lore and significance to the story. The dungeons are not randomly stumbled upon, but part of the story-telling. Link often chases after someone trying to rescue them and ends up in the dungeon like in Wind Waker or Twilight Princess. Each and every dungeon are vitally important and progress the story in a meaningful way. In Breath of the Wild nothing matters. You aren't slowly introduced to powers, weapons don't matter anymore they just explode after a few hits, Link doesn't need to be anywhere in particular, Link doesn't need to do anything in a particular order. Part of this stems from open-world game design, but there are plenty of games that solved the issue of storytelling in open-world games. Don't let anyone of this deter you if you like the story in BotW, that's fine. I am already enjoying the tone and story of Tears of the Kingdom a lot more. I was hoping they would remedy a few more issues than they did, but TotK is decent so far
The “climbing out of water” animation has changed too! In TOTK Link puts one foot on the ledge before climbing out of water, but in BOTW he uses both hands to boost himself up. :)
@@apfeltorte7214 that might make sense if the animations were the other way around, but botw is the one where he uses both of his arms and has less “training”. also it doesn’t require that much arm strength in the first place, which is why i just think its something to do with the zonai arm maybe not grabbing the ground as well as his normal hand did, so he needs a boost from his leg instead of becoming stronger/weaker. but who knows? it could have no meaning at all
There are a few instances in TOTK where he is startled and turns his right side away and holds that arm back - he may not like using it because of how he lost the original arm or maybe because the zonai arm is *weird*
I love how the songs Link hums while cooking are all associated with the girls Link has met across the games. It’s sweet to think that he subconsciously thinks of them while cooking: a safe and relaxed activity.
I love the detail of when you land in water and the splash goes super high. Also I know it's not subtle but the ease at which you can take to the sky is incredible.
Going from Tears of the Kingdom to that short clip of Ocarina of Time makes me nostalgic because Ocarina of Time was my first Zelda game and it’s nice to look back and realize how much the series has grown.
I think the funniest part about the removal of whistle-sprinting is the fact that it was done in the most middle-finger way possible, since it now actually depletes your stamina _faster_ than if you just held down the sprint button.
There's fluid simulations in the fog. When you are in a cave swing the sword or a spear, the fog moves like a fluid; move the camera upwards too, is an impressive detail that no one mentions.
I noticed that if you fall into water with no stamina, it will give you a little bit so you don't immediately drown. Useful if there's a cliff face next to the water you can exploit
One subtle change as well is that if you shoot a multi-shot bow to the ground, then you can pick the arrow back but as one only to avoid arrow duplication
A change related to #7 that I particularly like is that you can select things as quickly as you want in the menu in totk, while botw had this arbitrary roughly 1/4 second delay between selections. Also, it remembers your horses from botw! I discovered that just an hour ago.
I was so surprised to see my white and giant horses in TOTK ! And I now also have 2 Epona, since I used the amiibo in BOTW and in TOTK, without knowing the horses were saved
I wish my horses came over, but my last playthrough of BotW was on master. Horses are only transferred from the regular game, very disappointing Oh well, maybe they’ll transfer if they add a master mode to this game
I imagine the log walk was removed since it might be a little odd for him to walk that way on them when they're attached to various things with the new ultrahand ability, or he's just sturdier after a few years than he was during botw I dunno lmao
The falling animation change probably has to do with the new skydive animations. Link doesn't use the animation strictly going between sky and ground or ground and underground, just if he falls far enough, so this slight swap is probably related to the beginnings of that breakpoint where you can begin diving. As for the horse, while I'm sure they are in fact startled by splash, it doesn't help that the clip used to sample this had you shooting at chu jellies that were on their hooves. If the shot were to pierce through, the hoof would have gotten hit possibly startling the horse as a result.
5:10 Actually, it not discard the LAST item, but the item you WANT to be discarded. So you can discard the first one, just by selecting it and pressing X. Even better (dont need to redo all the adding) Sry for my english
I don't mind the removal of whistle sprinting. Sure it is helpful in the very early game but once you get access to horses and building vehicles it encourages uses of those traversal methods rather than just whistle sprinting everywhere, plus once you get enough stamina it is hardly missed
The overall meter will deplete the same amount over time, but will use up a larger amount when you first start sprinting and then slow down. So if you mash the button, it causes you to repeatedly take that starting drain.
I like to think of the log animation being removed as Link learning how to balance again after being asleep for 100 years 😌 he’s doing so well we’re all proud of him
i love it, i‘m a sucker for all the small animation details and have been looking for a video like this since release. TOTK looks, in retrospect, so much more dynamic.
I would imagine that after having all of the guardians suddenly go berserk and rampage all over your cities, most people probably weren't too thrilled about that. After living in fear for a hundred years, they probably wanted to get that junk outta there as soon as the opportunity came up. Same thing with the divine beasts - do you really want giant weaponized mechs crawling around your city when they could turn on you at the drop of a hat?
I’m really glad they changed the rupees! Before, you had to actually touch them exactly, now you just have to be within several feet like any other item.
@@dancefrance335 The time can be off by several minutes depending on where you are and what the time on your device is compared to RU-vid's servers. View count is not live and updates once every so often, anywhere from every few minutes to an hour.
To be honest I don’t like all of the changes they made to horses in TOTK, they’re reactive to everything now including Zonai building and run away so much. They also greatly decreased the distance that horses will respond to a whistle, it’s really annoying
Regarding Pro mode in HUD. Not only it hides your hearts but it also hide the Detector and the buff icon from food. And I've to admit I'm a bit puzzled by that, it make it less intuitive to use in Pro Mode
If it didnt remove everything it would be really frustrating the game looks and feels so much better with 0 clutter on screen, just you and this breathtaking world to explore
One added quality of life feature I like in TOTK is when opening a chest that contains an item you do not have remaining inventory slots for, and it lets you select and drop/keep something from your inventory without having to open the menu and start the chest opening animation all over again. It sounds inconsequential, but the time it saves adds up.
While Whistle Sprinting may not work in TotK, there have been other ways to get a similar result by doing Bow Sprint or R Sprint, except it doesn't refill Stamina when you do it, and the timing can be inconsistent at times to be effective, but it does seem to allow you to run a further distance with reduced stamina consumption.
I think the whistle-sprint also drains more stamina than just running, if you try it in Tears of the Kingdom, due to the "normal" mechanic behind repeatedly tapping the Sprint button (the initial burst drains a lot of stamina, it evens out afterwards). So not only does it not work, it indirectly punishes you for trying.
I knew something was weird about rupees that couldn't put my finger on. I guess it makes it more consistent with other items but I much prefer being able to run over them like in every other game. Pro mode having no hearts is also kind of odd it looked clean while still practical with just the hearts. Why not just make no hud a third new option?
to be honest not entirely sure if i’m a fan of having to grab rupees manually now, i really liked just sprinting over them and hearing them clinkle into my inventory. but that’s probably the only gripe i’ll have about the changes to this world and its mechanics 2:26 on the other hand, OUR BOY SINGS NOWWW omg this is my new favorite thing about totk
idk if this counts but Kakariko Village has removed the campfire that was near the Hylia Statue (Probably because it was so close to the cooking pot to begin with)
A gossip stone in OoT says, "They say that players who select the HOLD option for Z-Targeting are the real "Zelda players"!" so they said git gud scrubs lol
@@dominicmoisant8393 I don't think I ever used the "Lock" option. It makes running away harder, especially since it seemed like more often than not tapping to un-target would select a different enemy instead of disengaging.
I can't believe no one is pointing out the fact that Link just looks a lot cooler in TOTK. No hair tie, full mullet, pretty much has a sleeve tattoo and is just in total bamf mode.
I think another difference I've noticed is that monsters seem to have a smaller agro radius. You can get a lot closer without them attacking/noticing you
Not sure if it's new with the update today, but you can actually chose which items to de-select when composing dishes, elexirs or just dumping stuff for fusions (I'm guessing you can fuse rupees now, hence the prompt). Just move the cursor over the object you want to remove and only that will be removed when pressing X
5:14 not only the last selected item. You can move choosing window onto the spot where any of things he's holding are in his eq, then decrease will remove that item, even if it's first or second
7:34 for #10 this is likely because they added water as a usable element (fuse an opal - power of water - to a weapon) so water is an effect now. Idk if it does much tho, i haven’t really tested it on any enemies. It’s basically the same as fireballs but with water, likely for putting out fires. Edit: also star fragments on a weapon shoot these star light projectile things, idk what they do tho I haven't tried it yet.
For holding items you can actually hover over an item you selected and press X to remove that item, so if you picked an apple first and other things after you can hover over the apple in the inventory and press x and it will remove the apple!
Tbh, I like that change. There were a couple times where I run around/by a ruppee and didn't pick it up, and had to go back. Now if you're in the general area of it you can just mash the button.
@@Kodan882 Yeah I agree that it's easier to pick up with just spamming A rather than running all around the rupee missing it if you're not exactly perfectly angled
There are actually people who play the game who would complain that they pick the money up automatically despite that being in every prior game, because it makes their no-money playthrough harder.
I still have to confirm it but i think they made it so that bigger objects that are falling from a greater height make a louder crash after hitting the ground. They also changed the way sounds are behind walls and distance.
Another difference between botw and totk is that in botw when you get a quest you completed beforehand, you’ll have the quest name and then the quest complete after, but for totk it just goes to the quest complete
07:49 I've seen a horse fall into water. It did swim and rescued itself! On land it did that shake off animation too. I'm sure, in your case it did it for the same reason: "Heck I'm wet!"
Quieres otra "no tan sutil" diferencia? En BotW cuando tienes aproximadamente 200 flechas, los vendedores dejan de reponerlas y la mayoria de enemigos arqueros dejan de soltarlas al morir. En TotK quieren que uses mucho mas el arco, ya que sin buscarlo activamente, ya me ha salido el mensaje de "no te caben mas en la alforja"
another nerf is with climbing, in botw if you were climbing any incline that wasn't completely vertical you could press b and start walking up it briefly and restore stamina, in totk if you press b you slip all the way down
This is still in the game, they just tweaked it. I think the degree on the angle needed to not slide is lower now. Plus, if you run out of stamina, you cannot effectively do this either way. Make sure you save that sliver.
Yeah, I've noticed it myself. You can still do it, but not on steep inclines. Makes me sad- I climbed all over Hebra using that running uphill trick in BOTW.
@@chrissysonicutdrloz Considering the moment options on TOTK it isnt a big nerf. My strat was to ultrahand rockets to my shield to get up things I didn't have the stam for.
The only thing i dont like about totk was when you threw a bolder in what you could actually hear the rock "plunge" into the water but in totk the sound dont hit the same 🫠
But does link know if hes the reincarnation of other links? Or maybe all links are from the same family tree so possibly links great great great grandpa is also link🤔
@Boredom Studios He doesn't know about his previous reincarnations because he and Zelda had no idea how Ganondorf knew them and most likely didn't know who he was either. The problem is that Malon's song could only be passed down from child timeline and Marron's from the fallen. Twilight Princess is my second favorite zelda, but if someone prefers the fallen timeline I won't complain.
One thing I like is how link hums, it’s breathy and imperfect, a soldier especially one who doesn’t talk much will not have a voice of gold, so when I hear him hum or shiver it sounds so natural and real
I actually liked BotW’s pro HUD better than totk. The hearts made it easier to see how I was doing in a fight, but now I have to pause every hit to see if I’m going to die or not
running stamina thing is less of a deal as you can build flying machines , cars , and even if you cant yet you can use towers and sky island to travel to shrines fast , there are so many new mobility options its your choice how you travel:) i like walking as you encounter monsters , npc , but if somone wants to rush something easy options are there , easiest avalible from start is bird and fan , and then you glide when it runs out , i unlocked a lot towers that way despite being fresh out of tutorial map
Animals also stay around much much longer in TotK than in BotW. If you shoot a boar and it runs off, you can chase it for a bit until it tires out and stops running. In BotW, it just runs off and disappears even if you tail it.
